Professor Richard W. Garnett’s USA Today column analyzing the Supreme Court’s landmark church-state decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC was picked up by the Associated Press and subsequently reported by numerous news outlets, including the Christian Science Monitor, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Salt Lake Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, and the Washington Post. Professor Garnett’s amicus brief in support of the church in this case can be accessed here.

A Mississippi judge has temporarily blocked 21 of more than 200 executive pardons given this week by outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) during his final days in office, and University of Notre Dame Professor of Law Jimmy Gurulé counts himself among many who are outraged that Barbour allowed murderers to be released.

“The fact that Gov. Barbour would pardon one convicted murderer absent extenuating circumstances is deeply disturbing,” says Gurulé, who, in his 23 years at Notre Dame, has taken two major leaves to serve as assistant U.S. Attorney General and Undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury Department for Enforcement. “Pardoning four convicted murderers is shocking, insulting to the surviving family members of the murder victims, and demonstrates a callous disregard for our criminal justice system and the rule of law. In my opinion, Gov. Barbour’s actions are indefensible.”

Professor Richard W. Garnett has been appointed as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. The Committee is updating the bishops on religious liberty issues at the Conference’s November 14-16 meeting in Baltimore. More information about the Committee on Religious Liberty is available here.

Obama’s lawyers bid to regulate religious hiring
Yahoo! News
The department “is going against what almost every court has decided … it has taken an outlier position,” said Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law & Religion at Emory University.

As the U.S. Supreme Court opens its October 2011 term, there is intense focus on several high-profile cases and questions the justices are likely to tackle later, including those involving affirmative action, health-care reform and immigration policy. However, according to Notre Dame Law School Professor Rick Garnett, the court is already set to hear, during this first week of the new term, one of the most important church-state cases in decades (Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC).

“The case involves the ‘ministerial exception’ to employment-discrimination laws,” Garnett says. “This exception prevents courts from second-guessing employment decisions made by religious employers regarding ‘ministerial’ employees. Although the Supreme Court has never squarely addressed this exception, it is a crucial doctrine for protecting religious freedom and the separation of church and state.”

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell’s legal and policy analysis of the recent use of drones to kill Americans Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan in Yemen has been reported by numerous news outlets, including ABC, Reuters, MSNBC, the Inter Press Service, Huffington Post, Reuters, Financial Times, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and others. Her original CNN article on this topic can be accessed here.

Al-Awlaki Killing In Yemen Raises Constitutional Questions
Huffington Post
That doesn’t excuse his killing, said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Notre Dame scholar who studies targeted killings. “Derogation from the fundamental right to life is permissible only in battle zones or to save a human life immediately,” said O’Connell.

Killing of American in Yemen raises legal questions
Reuters (also published on MSNBC, ABC News, Reuters India, China Post, Malaysia Star, Chicago Tribune and four other publications)
“The fact that (al-Awlaki) was a dual U.S.-Yemeni citizen means that he had extra protections under the U.S. constitution than he would not have had if he was just a Yemeni citizen,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, an international law professor at the University of Notre Dame’s law school. “So the president has done something in my view that is highly questionable under our own Constitution.”

U.S. drone killing of American al-Awlaki prompts legal, moral debateCNN (also published on CNN International and in 57 other publications)
But Mary Ellen O’Connell, an expert on international law at the University of Notre Dame, said the key question concerned not citizenship but location. "The real concern is where is this person?’ she said. “He is not in an armed conflict zone, not in a battle zone.”

Using Drones Outside Combat ZonesPBS
University of Notre Dame international law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell released a statement calling the strike an illegal mission.

Obama Admin Anti-Conscience Mandate Threatens Health Care
Life News
A recent rule issued by the Obama administration threatens our nation’s healthcare by attacking the consciences of our nation’s healthcare providers….O. Carter Snead is professor of law at University of Notre Dame Law School.

Was Killing al-Qaida’s YouTube Preacher Illegal?
Wired
Dunlap’s friend Mary Ellen O’Connell disagrees. And her credentials are just as impressive: she’s the vice chairman of the prestigious American Society of International Law, as well as a professor at the University of Notre Dame. Her argument doesn’t rely on Awlaki’s American citizenship.

Professor criticizes execution
The Observer
Rick Garnett, professor of law and associate dean at the Notre Dame Law School, said the execution highlighted the American courts’ inability to properly handle new evidence in cases after a conviction has been reached.

“The publicity [Davis’] case received had the useful effect of reminding us that it is very difficult for any criminal justice system — even one that has as many safeguards as ours does — to deal with evidence that is discovered, or that changes, after a person is convicted and sentenced,” Garnett said. > Read Article

"Most important" religious freedom case
Deseret News
“People think separation of church and state means President Obama can’t say, ‘God bless America’ or ministers can’t talk about politics. But historically that is not what it is all about,” said Richard W. Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School.

Fox News Partners With Google After Years Of Attacks
Media Matters for America
Christianity Today reported that “corporations often exclude faith-based groups from their philanthropic programs or restrict who can qualify, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School” because they want to avoid any potentially polarizing causes.

Obama and the Catholic vote
The Hill
“This will likely drive many important Catholic social service providers to close up shop, inevitably harming the poor communities that they serve,” Notre Dame Law School Professor O. Carter Snead told the Catholic News Agency on Aug. 2.

Thomas says high court needs geographic diversity
Associated Press
University of Notre Dame Law School professor Richard Garnett told The Associated Press he’s not bothered by the lack of geographic diversity on the Supreme Court because he thinks the justices’ skills are more important than their roots.